It was on this day in 1979 that Brenda Ann Spencer started shooting at the elementary school across the street from her house. She killed two and wounded nine others. The gun was a .22 that her father gave her for Christmas. When asked why she did it, her response was simple, “I don’t like Mondays”. It was one month later that The Boomtown Rats performed Boomtown Rats I Don’t Like Mondays written by bandleader Bob Geldorf for the first time. He was inspired for Boomtown Rats I Don’t Like Mondays during an interview when it hit him, “It was such a senseless act. It was the perfect senseless act and this was the perfect senseless reason for doing it. So perhaps I wrote the perfect senseless song to illustrate it. It wasn’t an attempt to exploit tragedy.”
Boomtown Rats I Don’t Like Mondays Music Video
For several years the radio stations in San Diego, the place of the crime, would not play Boomtown Rats I Don’t Like Mondays on the radio to honor sensitive listeners who may not appreciate Geldorf’s peculiar humor.
Roy Orbison was one of our great voices in pop music. He grew-up listening to and playing Rockabilly and Country and Western in Texas. Between 1960-1964, Orbison had 22 singles place on Billboards Top 40. He was elected into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Bruce Springsteen was his presenter. Roy Orbison Pretty Woman reached #1 on Billboard and stayed there for three weeks.
Roy Orbison Pretty Woman Music Video
Roy Orbison Pretty Woman is a great song that has been covered by many artists and still is today. Roy Orbison Pretty Woman shows up in films including Dumb and Dumber and Pretty Woman, as well as a Van Halen cover in Weird Science. Roy Orbison Pretty Woman has even made its appearance in several Bollywood films.
Roy Orbison Pretty Woman from Film Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts
Roy made a comeback when teaming up with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne to form the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. He died of a heart attack soon after that. His first wife and two of his sons died of separate accidents.
Believe it or not, I had the “45” of Roy Orbison Pretty Woman when I was a kid. It was not a hit any more by that time though, but as a child that did not matter to me. Now I still play Roy Orbison Pretty Woman as a professional DJ.
Amazing version #4! I loved Landslide when it was first released by Fleetwood Mac in 1975 written by Stevie Nicks. I had the opportunity to see Fleetwood Mac perform Landslide outdoors twice in the summer of 1977 on their Rumors Tour. I had such a crush on Stevie:)
Fleetwood Mac Landslide Music Video
Then there was an excellent cover by Smashing Pumpkins which took residence in my car CD player for a month or so.
Amazing version #3 was by The Dixie Chicks who had a huge crossover hit with it and I just recently had a request for this version.
Now, Bush has released another version that is equally as forceful and full of Soul and passion!
Bush Landslide (Rooftop Version) Music Video
Stevie Nicks wrote this while debating going back to college or what to do with her romantic and musical partner Lindsay Buckingham. She was gazing out a window in Aspen, Colorado reflecting on her choices, “looking out at the Rocky Mountains pondering the avalanche of everything that had come crashing down on us … at that moment, my life truly felt like a landslide in many ways.”
Landslide Lyrics
I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
‘Till the landslide brought me down
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life
Well, I’ve been afraid of changing
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older too
Well, I’ve been afraid of changing
‘Cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Even children get older
And I’m getting older too
Oh, I’m getting older too
Oh, take my love, take it down
Oh, climb a mountain and turned around
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring it down
And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well, the landslide will bring it down
Oh, the landslide will bring it down
This wedding season twice, I have had a request to play Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate at the Recessional at the end of the Ceremony as a Rhode Island Wedding DJ. I enjoyed seeing the couples strutting down the aisle with smiles from ear to ear to Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate. Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate is a great song with such a nice flow to it. Rumor has it Flea asked his wife to marry him to this song.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate Music Video
Many couples today are coming up with unique choices for the music for their Ceremonies and Traditional Dances. I have fun supporting them and offering alternatives as we plan their wedding collectively. It is always their decision but I try offer my professional Wedding DJ experience when desired.
In early October, I was professional Rhode Island Wedding DJ for a wedding. The Bride wanted a different instrumental version of Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate on piano by Klavier. I had not heard this version previously, but once I heard it, I understood why she wanted it. It was perfect for a beach Ceremony with the lighthouse in the background. She looked fantastic and it was like a scene from a movie with Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate playing in the background as they left the beach with the sun beginning to set, as we watched them making their way up the hill. Life is good for the New Jersey Shore Wedding DJ.
Red Hot Chili Peppers Hard To Concentrate Cover by Klavier
Klavier - Hard to Concentrate
Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group’s musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk rock and psychedelic rock. Wikipedia
This past Saturday night I felt inspired to put together a Janet Jackson medley while mixing at a professional DJ gig that began with Janet Jackson If. I am surprised she is not played more these days. Her music is so well designed for dancing and creative movement. Her vocals are soft and somehow forceful and sensual simultaneously.
Janet Jackson is the first and only artist in history to produce seven top five hits from one album, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814. In addition to receiving recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.
I remember driving kids in the van we used to pick them up from school to the program I was coordinating at the time. They played Janet Jackson If again and again, and the girls would practice all her dance steps every day while we were getting ready to begin. I got to know every beat of Janet Jackson If without ever choosing to play it or listen to it:) As a long-time fan of Diana Ross and The Supremes and a professional DJ, it inspired me to hear her sample beats from them along with the powerful guitar chords that introduces the Janet Jackson If.
Janet Jackson If Story
“Janet Jackson If deals with a female narrator’s fantasies of being someone’s girlfriend. The track contains a sample from Diana Ross & the Supremes‘ 1969 song “Someday We’ll Be Together“, and is built on a heavy metal guitar riff heard throughout the song. The combination of heavy hip hop/new jack swing beats with an electric guitar and a trip hop sound was a relative departure in sound for Jackson, and an extension of styles she developed on her previous album, Rhythm Nation 1814. A remix of “If” entitled Brothers in Rhythm House Mix appears on Jackson’s 1995 remix album janet. Remixed. The single contains a B-side called “One More Chance”, a cover of a song her brother Randy wrote, produced, and performed for The Jacksons‘ 1984 Victory album.” wikipedia
I realize that I am posting the video Pink Raise Your Glass, very late. It occurred to me as a professional DJ, that this is becoming a Rock Classic. Almost every party or wedding that I perform at as a Rhode Island Wedding DJ these days includes this song. It has even made it to 40th and 50th Birthday parties!
Pink Raise Your Glass is a great party song with some nice sarcasm mixed-in to the typical Pink high energy rhythms. It is starting to become rare for Rock songs of the current era to stand the test of time as the Classics of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s did. There are several reasons for this, one being the rise in popularity of Hip Hop, R&B and Country. Pink seems to be one of the artists that may be able to rise above and sustain popularity and her roots for an extended period, partially due to the fact that she appeals to teens, twenties and adults simultaneously. I hope she continues to produce edgy music like Pink Raise Your Glass, that also reaches widespread audiences.
According to Billboard, Pink was rated No.13 on the list of Artists of the Decade and No.1 Pop Song Artist of the Decade (2000–2009. Pink has named Madonna and Janis Joplin as two of her biggest musical influences. She stated that “I wanted to do it my way with my career, and I had this arrogant notion that people weren’t just interested in my music but me as a person. That was my bit of arrogance, I guess. That’s something I learned from Madonna. I was a fan right from the first time I heard ‘Holiday'” Of Joplin she expressed: “She was so inspiring by singing blues music when it wasn’t culturally acceptable for white women, and she wore her heart on her sleeve. She was so witty and charming and intelligent, but she also battled an ugly-duckling syndrome. I would love to play her in a movie.”
Alecia Beth Moore (born September 8, 1979), known by her stage name Pink (stylized as P!nk), is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress. In 2000, she released her first single “There You Go“, from her debut album Can’t Take Me Home. The song was a commercial success, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Having sold over 40 million albums and 70 million singles globally, being a critically acclaimed performer, Pink is often seen as the “underdog” in popular music, for not receiving as mainstream attention as her female pop stars peers. Her career accolades include three Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards and five MTV Video Music Awards, in addition to having eighteen Top 20 Hits on the Billboard charts and three #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2009 Billboard magazine named Pink the #1 pop musician of the decade, and in 2012 VH1 named Pink #10 on their list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music
British soul singer Adele considers Pink’s performance at Brixton Academy in London as one of “the most defining moments” in her life.
John Hiatt Have A Little Faith has been featured in the films Benny & Joon, Phenomenon, Love Happens, Look Who’s Talking and My Best Friend’s Girl. John Hiatt Have A Little Faith has been covered by many artists including Joe Cocker, Delbert McClinton, Chaka Kahn and my favorite, Van Morrison. Jewel’s version is the one featured in Phenomenon.
Really this is just a beautiful song- the lyrics, the melody and intensity. It certainly carries a message we all can appreciate.
John Hiatt Have A Little Faith Lyrics
When the road gets dark
And you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark
And have a little faith in me
And when the tears you cry
Are all you can believe
Just give these loving arms a try
And have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
And when your secret heart
Cannot speak so easily
Come here darling, from a whisper start
And have a little faith in me
And when your back’s against the wall
Just turn around and you, you will see
I will catch you, I will catch your fall
Just have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
Have a little faith in me
‘Cause I’ve been loving you, for such a long, long time
Expecting nothing in return
Just for you to have a little faith in me
You see time, time is our friend
‘Cause for us, there is no end
And all you gotta do, is have a little faith in me
I will hold you up, I will hold you up
And your love, gives me strength enough to
Have a little faith in me
Hey hey
All you gotta do for me girl
Is have a little faith in me
“In the 1960s and 1970s, Berry’s music was the inspiration for such groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Berry had a number of comeback recordings and in 1972 had the first and only #1 Pop Chart hit of his career with “My Ding-A-Ling. 1986 fittingly saw him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the very first inductee in history. As a tribute to his pervasiveness in the realm of rock, a clip of Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode was chosen played in the Voyager I spacecraft, proving Chuck Berry and his rock legacy are truly out of this world.” The Official Site of Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of Rock and Roll music.
Among the many bandleaders performing a backup role with Chuck Berry were Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller when each was just starting his career. At the request of President Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode performed at the White House on June 1, 1979. A pioneer of rock music, Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode was a significant influence on the development of both the music and the attitude associated with the rock music lifestyle. A statue 8 feet (2.4 m) tall of Berry, funded by donations, is being erected along the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The dedication ceremony was July 29th, 2011.
In 1980, when I was a freshman in college working at the college radio station as a DJ and a professional Wedding DJ, I had the opportunity to see Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode perform at a small venue in Dover, NJ called The Show Place. There were maybe 100 people present at the show and it was so much fun! I was so surprised how much energy and enthusiasm he had as ‘an older man’ back then. It is amazing to me that he is still performing today!!!! That was 31 years ago.
It is hard not to feel the energy and Soul that the great Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk put into every guitar lick in this song. Smooth as silk without being overproduced. I recently had a Groom ask for this song to be the song that he and his mother would dance to for their Mother-Son Dance. I fought hard to contain the tears that well-up every time I hear this song. I do not remember the scene in the film La Bamba but I remember it was one of the more emotional ones. There are few artists from that era that had a full-length feature film made about their life like Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk. As a professional Wedding DJ, I get requested plenty of his music these days and continue to feel moved by his music.
Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk Music Video
He was born Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes. He was asked by his producer and agent to change his family name to make it sound ‘more american’. Its strange in 2011 to contextually imagine that happening today, where nearly twenty percent of American population is Latino. His death along with other pop stars Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper is still considered an American tragic story. After the February 2, 1959, performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly, Richardson, and Valens flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered. He was on the plane because he won a coin toss. The plane, a four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza, departed for Fargo, North Dakota, and crashed shortly after takeoff in a snow storm. The crash killed all three passengers and the pilot; at 17, Valens was the youngest to die on the flight. The event inspired singer Don McLean’s popular 1971 ballad “American Pie“, and immortalized February 3 as “The Day the Music Died”.
John Lennon Imagine. I remember the bittersweet night of being a professional DJ at a club in Randolph, NJ on a Monday night, it was December 8,1980. The club was mostly packed, especially for a Monday night in winter. The dance floor was jamming and everybody was having a good time. A young woman came up to the DJ booth and begged me to play Bruce Springsteen. I explained that the dance floor was full and she would have to wait till it thinned out, otherwise everybody would probably stop dancing. She finally convinced me to play him while she was standing there. I had the record in my hand when one of the bouncers ran up and told me John Lennon had just been shot and killed. I dropped the record on the floor of the DJ booth. After the song playing was over, I turned on the mike and announced his death. I asked for moment of silence and then played “Imagine” before returning to my regular set, although not regular at all. It is the moment I think of the most when I get behind my turntables, then CD Players and now MacBook. Growing up, he was hero my hero with his music and desire for peace.
The next day, as Program Director of the local college radio and DJ, I stated that we only play John Lennon Imagine and music by John Lennon for the next twenty-four hours.
